Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha in Coalitions

When the Muslim League of Jinnah and the Hindu Mahasabha of Savarkar-Dr.Syama
Prasad joined hands to run Coalition Govts in three Provinces

Dr.Hari Desai writes on the history of the Love
story of Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha

Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha in
Coalitions

Like
Jinnah, Savarkar too believed the Muslims as a separate nation

Both ML
and HM opposed the Quit India movement in August 1942

Dr. Hari Desai
Monday 25th September 2017 05:27 EDT

“The
coalition is like bringing North Pole and South Pole together.” Jammu and
Kashmir leader Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was heard saying when his People’s
Democratic Party(PDP) was engaged with the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) in
alliance to form a coalition government in February 2015. Though both were
ideologically pole apart, they decided to form the government on the basis
of an Agenda of Alliance with Common Minimum Programme(CMP). Even
in British India, the coalition government of the Congress and the Muslim
League(ML) could not run smoothly and lead to the Partition, but odd
bed-fellows like the ML and the Hindu Mahasabha(HM) were able to rule over
at least three Provinces despite being pole apart ideologically ! Normally
it is believed that Mohammad Ali Jinnah was responsible for the Two-Nation
theory and was blamed for Partition of the British India. Once a die-hard
Congressman and opponent of the ML, Jinnah felt pushed to the wall by
Mahatma Gandhi and felt humiliated by Jawaharlal Nehru. In 1937, when his
Muslim League was denied even two seats in the United Provinces(UP)
ministry by the Congress, Jinnah refused any compromise. The
Lahore convention of ML in March 1940 under the chairmanship of the
lifetime President of the ML, Barrister Jinnah, passed the Pakistan
Resolution moved by A.K. Fazlul Haq, the Premier of Bengal. It called for
a separate Nation for Muslims without using the word Pakistan. For Jinnah,
Hindus and Muslims were two separate Nations who could not be together.

Not
many people would know that the HM President for more than six terms, Barrister
V. D. Savarkar, too used the same terminology while delivering the
presidential address at Karnavati (Ahmedabad) convention of the HM in
1937, three years before the Pakistan Resolution. Shamsul Islam, an
authority on the Partition history of India, states in his book Muslim
against Partition of India”: “So there is no doubt that the Two-Nation
theory was neither the innovation nor monopoly of the Muslim separatists.
Chronologically, Hindu variant appeared first and Muslim variant followed
it aggressively.” Savarkar who was for the Hindu Nation believed
“the Muslim Nation made to live in a position of subordinate co-operation
with the Hindu Nation.” Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, in his book “Pakistan or the
Partition of India”, felt it strange that “Mr.Savarkar and Mr. Jinnah instead
of being opposed to each other on the one nation versus two nations issue
are in complete agreement about it”. He stressed: “Mr. Savarkar admits that
the Muslims are a separate nation..He allows them to have a national flag.
Yet he opposes the demand of the Muslim nation for a separate national
home. If he claims a national home for the Hindu nation, how can he refuse
the claim of the Muslim nation for a national home?”

Both
Savarkar and Jinnah were critical of each other since they catered two separate
vote banks. Both were critical of Gandhi’s Congress too. Jinnah had the
Muslim support base where as Savarkar had the Hindu support base.
Publically they were thirsty of each other’s blood but the “opportunist
politics” or “pragmatic politics” made the odd bed-fellows to fill up the
vacuum created by the Congress following “Do or Die” cry of August 1942 mass
movement. Both ML and HM opposed the Quit India movement following the
call given by Mahatma Gandhi and preferred to join hands with the British
under the garb of the ‘pragmatic politics’. Even when most of the Congress
leaders including Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Nehru and Maulan Azad were
in jail, Barrister Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the second in command of
HM, with the blessings of Savarkar, had joined the Fazlul Haq ministry in
Bengal as the Finance Minister in 1941 and remained in the ministry of the
mover of the Pakistan Resolution for nearly 11 months. Even earlier,
Syamababu was elected to Bengal Legislative Council in 1929 for the first time
on the Congress ticket. He was also the Union Minister for Industries in
Nehru cabinet before resigning on 6 April 1950 to launch the Jan Sangh in
October 1951 with the blessings of Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar(Guruji), the
second Sarsanghchalak(Chief) of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS).

Sindh
Province, being the birth place of Jinnah, was special to him in his movement
for Pakistan. The Sindh Assembly was first to pass the Pakistan Resolution
moved by G M Sayed in 1943 when the Province had a coalition government
with diametrically opposite political forces i.e. ML and HM! Of course,
the Hindu members walked out and the three Hindu Ministers voted against
the resolution but the resolution was passed with 24 versus 3 in the Sindh
Assembly on 3 March 1943. Even after passing the Pakistan resolution, none
of the three Hindu ministers resigned from the ministry headed by Sir
Ghulam Hussain Hidaytullah. They were Rao Saheb Gokaldas Mewaldas, Dr.
Hemandas R.Wadhwan and Lolumal R. Motwani.

In
the provincial elections held in 1937 in the North West Frontier Province(NWFP,
now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa-KP of Pakistan) of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, the
Congress won the majority of the seats in the Provincial Assembly. In
1939, in protest against the Viceroy when the Congress ministry headed by
Khan Abdul Jabbar Khan resigned, Sardar Aurangzeb Khan of Muslim League
with support of the Hindu Mahasabha and Akalis formed the coalition
government. Mehr Chand Khanna of the HM was the Finance Minister. Later, Khanna
migrated to India and served Nehru Cabinet as Minister for Rehabilitation
and Housing, respectively, between 1954 and 1962. Even in Punjab, there
were serious efforts to have the ML and the HM coalition government
installed. Both Savarkar and Dr. B. S. Moonje were very much active for the
same. Jinnah had declared in one of his public speeches in Sialkot(now in
Pakistan) that the HM was to have a coalition government with the ML as
Savarkar and Dr. B.S. Moonje had directed to form a coalition government
with Muslim League “ if it was inevitable” !

The
historical facts which remained hidden so far are needed to be made public
however bitter they may be. If one goes through the speeches of Savarkar
at Bhagalpur and Kanpur conventions of the HM, his efforts to justify his
actions of joining hands with the British rulers are crystal clear.
Savarkar expected more and more Hindu youth to join the British Army
and Air force when the British were engaged in the World War II. The
Hindutva icon even condemned the efforts of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose
and his Indian National Army(INA) to align with Japan against the British.
The facts of the history and the events which took place cannot be
denied.

Next
Column: Dr. N.B. Khare and his craving for Power
( The writer is a Socio-political Historian. E-mail : haridesai@gmail.com )